Good news for a Friday: an update on the RSPB’s work to reduce our charity’s ecological footprint

This is my annual update on how well the RSPB is doing in reducing its own environmental footprint.  We spend a lot of time encouraging others to adopt positive environmental behaviour, so it is only right that we try to practice what we preach.

Here, I pull out some highlights from this year’s report compiled by my colleague, Sarah Alsbury (who leads our environmental performance programme).

Our top priority has been to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% (per staff member) between 2010 and 2020.  This is roughly in line with targets set by the UK Government.  Our focus has primarily been on accounting for emissions through our built estate, travel, paper and publications. 

As shown in the figures below, we have made good progress particularly because we have established a number of renewable projects and installed energy savings measures.  Most noticeably, we have made considerable savings through the wind turbine established last year at the RSPB’s Headquarters.  It generated 1,378,335 kWh of electricity in its first year of operation, which is equivalent to powering approximately 354 homes.

My colleague, Paul Langshaw's great picture of the Lodge turbine

This was a big deal for us and every time I go past it to and from work, I feel really good about what we have achieved.  Clearly, this project was not without risk. But, we carried out stringent ecological monitoring before giving the go ahead to the wind turbine and we and our partners Ecotricity have continued monitoring for potential impacts on birds and bats. From pre-construction surveys, we identified that bats could potentially be affected and we therefore agreed with Ecotricity that the turbine is switched off for an hour either side of dawn and dusk between May and October when bats are most active. Ecotricity has fitted bat detectors to the turbine to check that this is working and carried out casualty surveys on the ground. From this data, we are confident that the system is working for bats. The detectors are also providing valuable information about how bats behave around wind turbines.

As well as the turbine, we are putting the finishing touches to a major programme of LED lighting, solar PV car ports and biomass boilers, which will help us hit our targets. The biomass boilers have been tested to make sure that they can take reed from our wetland reserves, which we cut to provide the right conditions for a wildlife.

Through these actions, we are demonstrating that it is possible to generate renewable energy in harmony with nature.

Two final things to report…

 …all our cafes and the staff restaurant at our headquarters have achieved the Food For Life standard, the Soil Association’s mark for sustainable catering outlets. 

 …our whole approach is driven by an externally credited scheme called Green Dragon which recognises the great greening work done by our staff and helps us do even more. We retained Level 2 of Green Dragon in Wales in January 2017 while our East of England and Scottish teams are making good progress towards achieving Level 2 by the end of January 2018.

 All of this requires planning, investment and sustained action by staff and volunteers.  While we might not get everything right, I am proud of what we have collectively achieved.  I hope to be able to report more success next year.